The Houston Area Survey on Health, Education, and the Arts (SHEA)

Ronald R. Cookston

Dr. Cookston provides leadership to develop program service components, facilitate coordination of the broad community health service system and facilitates linkages between the 165+ Member and Affiliated Organizations of the Collaborative and provides direction for and management of the program activities. He has over 30 years experience with health and human services management including senior management responsibilities in Public Health Services, Mental Retardation Services, Mental Health Services, Primary Care Services, Social Services, Substance Abuse Services and Community Development activities.

During his career, Dr. Cookston has frequently related to or coordinated research projects primarily designed to demonstrate the return on investment of community intervention activities. He has experience working on establishing research and data collection protocols to monitor the use of emergency rooms in Harris County and develop data to guide key decision makers regarding system adjustments that are needed. He has also been involved with the development of service components designed to integrate and coordinate hospital-based services and neighborhood focused primary care services to contain costs associated with health system use of person of chronic conditions.